Natasha Lomas
Senior Reporter
The Latest from Natasha Lomas
Apple and Google bow to pressure in Russia to remove Kremlin critic’s tactical voting app
Apple and Google have removed from their respective mobile app stores in Russia a tactical voting app created by the organization of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. Earlier this week Reuters rep
Tanso nabs $1.9M pre-seed to help industrial manufacturers do sustainability reporting
The climate crisis is creating massive demand for data capture as industries grapple with how to decarbonize. Put simply, you can’t cut your carbon emissions if don’t know what they are in
Europe plans a Chips Act to boost semiconductor sovereignty
The EU will use legislation to push for greater resilience and sovereignty in regional semiconductor supply chains. The bloc’s president trailed a forthcoming “European Chips Act” in
Ireland probes TikTok’s handling of kids’ data and transfers to China
Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) has yet another Big Tech GDPR probe to add to its pile: The regulator said yesterday it has opened two investigations into video sharing platform TikT
Onin is trying to fix event planning by combining calendar and chat
What would happened if your go-to calendar and messaging apps were in fact one and the same thing? That’s the thinking behind Onin — a U.K. startup that wants to simplify event planning by
Index leads $12.2M seed in Sourceful, a data play to make supply chains greener
Supply chains can be a complex logistical challenge. But they pose an even greater environmental challenge. And it’s that latter problem — global supply-chain sustainability — where
Going after social commerce for sportspeople, Millions gets $10M
Millions.co, a social commerce platform geared toward professional and semi-professional athletes wanting help to monetize their fanbase by selling merch and/or on-demand video, has grabbed $10 millio
Glovo bags two grocery picking and delivery startups
More startup swapping in the food delivery space: Spain’s Glovo, an on-demand delivery platform which operates a network of dark stores focused on urban convenience shopping, is pushing deeper i
PassFort, a regtech SaaS for KYC and AML, nets $16.2M
London-based PassFort, a SaaS provider that helps business meet compliance requirements such as KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti-Money Laundering) reporting, has closed a $16.2 million Series A
Dutch court finds Uber drivers are employees
Uber has lost another legal challenge in Europe over the employment status of drivers: The Court of Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, has ruled that drivers for Uber are employed, rather than self-employ
UK dials up the spin on data reform, claiming ‘simplified’ rules will drive ‘responsible’ data sharing
The U.K. government has announced a consultation on plans to shake up the national data protection regime, as it looks at how to diverge from European Union rules following Brexit. It’s also a y
Fertility tracking app Flo closes $50M Series B
Flo, a fertility focused period-tracking app, has closed a $50 million Series B funding round which it says values the company at $800M — underlining how much value investors are now attaching t
Printify bags $45M, led by Index, to ride the custom printing boom
The creator economy loves merch, which is great news for on-demand custom printing startups such as Latvia-based Printify — today it’s announcing a $45 million Series A round, led by Index
UK offers cash for CSAM detection tech targeted at E2E encryption
The U.K. government is preparing to spend over half a million dollars to encourage the development of detection technologies for child sexual exploitation material (CSAM) that can be bolted on to end-
Women’s health tech brand, Elvie, tops up Series C to $97M
Elvie, the women’s health tech pioneer behind a connected breast pump and smart pelvic floor exerciser, has topped up a Series C which it announced earlier this summer (July) — adding a fu
After years of inaction against adtech, UK’s ICO calls for browser-level controls to fix ‘cookie fatigue’
In the latest quasi-throwback toward “do not track,” the U.K.’s data protection chief has come out in favor of a browser- and/or device-level setting to allow internet users to set &
Mobius Labs nabs $6M to help more sectors tap into computer vision
Berlin-based Mobius Labs has closed a €5.2 million (~$6.1M) funding round off the back of increased demand for its computer vision training platform. The Series A investment is led by Ventech
ProtonMail logged IP address of French activist after order by Swiss authorities
ProtonMail, a hosted email service with a focus on end-to-end encrypted communications, has been facing criticism after a police report showed that French authorities managed to obtain the IP address
Gamestry gets $5M to give game-video creators a sweeter deal
Barcelona-based gaming video platform Gamestry has snatched up $5 million in seed funding, led by Goodwater Capital, Target Global and Kibo Ventures — turning investors’ heads with a 175x
Europe’s top court slaps down ‘zero rating’ again
Europe’s top court has dealt another blow to “zero rating” — ruling for a second time that the controversial carrier practice goes against the European Union’s rules on o